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Mrs Mary TAPLIN, née Taplin (c.1820–1853)
St Giles section: Row 19, Grave F33

Mary Taplin (her maiden name was the same as her married name) was born in London in 1819/20 and baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 6 February 1820. She was the daughter of the publican George Taplin and his wife Charlotte..

At the time of the 1841 census Mary (20) was living at Horn’s Row on the Hackney Road with her parents and younger siblings George (18) and Thomas (16) who were clerks; and William (14) and John (12). The family had a 15-year-old servant girl.

By 1851 Mary Taplin’s father described himself as a house proprietor and was living at 5 George Street in Greenwich, and Mary (30) and her brother John (21) were still living at home with their parents.

Her future husband Charles Taplin, who was likely to be a relation, was a college servant aged 28 in 1851, lodging in Oxford at Elm Cottage No. 1 in St Michael’s parish. Born in Woodstock in 1822, he was the son of Charles & Mary Taplin, who are also buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery: see their grave for more about his family.

On 11 September 1852 at St Alphege’s Church in Greenwich, London, Mary Taplin married Charles Taplin. At the time of their marriage Mary was still living at George Street in Greenwich, with her father now described as a gentleman, and Charles was still living in St Michael’s parish in Oxford and working as a servant of Worcester College.

They appear to have started their married life in Oxford (in Little Clarendon Street in St Giles’s parish); but their marriage only lasted four months, as Mary died at the beginning of 1853:

† Mrs Mary Taplin née Taplin died at Little Clarendon Street at the age of 33 in January 1853 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Postscript on her husband (not buried with her)

Charles Taplin, described as a widower and a college servant, was living at 3 Richmond Road (then 3 Worcester Terrace) in St Paul’s district chapelry when on 27 September 1860 at Kidlington Church he married his second wife Sarah Woodford of Kidlington, daughter of the farmer George Woodford, and their marriage was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. At the time of the 1861 census they were both living at 3 Richmond Road, and Mary Ann Woodford (6) was visiting them. They had three children:

• Mary Taplin (born at Richmond Road (Worcester Terrace), Oxford in 1861 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 25 August)
• Sarah Anne Taplin (born at Richmond Road (Worcester Terrace) in 1863 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 19 July); appears to have died the same year)
• Ann Taplin (born at Richmond Road (Worcester Terrace) in 1865 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 15 August; died aged two weeks and buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in St Paul’s plot P.23 on 19 August 1865).

Charles Taplin’s second wife Sarah died on 20 April 1867: it is unclear where she is buried. In 1871 he was a widower of 48, still working as a college servant and living at 3 Richmond Road (then 3 Worcester Terrace) with his eldest daughter Mary (9), his unmarried sister Mary (38), and a servant. By the time his sister Mary died at his home in August 1875, he had moved to 23 Walton Street. Mary was buried in the same grave as her parents.

In 1881 Charles Taplin was described as a college bedmaker and was living at 23 Walton Street with his daughter Mary (19); they were still there in 1891, when he was retired.

Charles Taplin died at Stone, Buckinghamshire (although his probate record shows that he was still actually living at 23 Walton Street) on 28 January 1892 at the age of 69. His effects came to £675, and his daughter Mary was his executor. It is unclear where he is buried, but it is unlikely to be in this grave, as there is no record of his burial in the register of St Giles’s Church.